


Stars Shine Brighter With You

by astrosTH



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Lance (Voltron) is a Ray of Sunshine, Married Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Minor Allura/Romelle (Voltron), Multi, Oblivious Lance (Voltron), Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), Strangers to Lovers, adashi, klance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-13 03:49:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19243240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrosTH/pseuds/astrosTH
Summary: K: is this Lance?L: Yep! Who's this?K: Keith.~Adam provides Keith with the number of a "single, handsome, and intelligent" fellow English major. Keith is almost desperate for a study partner, so he hesitantly takes it.





	1. Waves Struck A Sea Of Bitterness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith receives a phone number from Adam. After an internal battle, he texts it. Romelle and James are there too, but they don't provide much emotional support.

Keith to Adam  
K: Are you sure I should text this guy? I'm not sure if I'm exactly up for meeting someone new. Can't you or Shiro just help me study?

A: Takashi says that you will get along with him perfectly fine. We could help you, but you need to meet new people. You can't just hang out with Romelle everyday. She is an art major, you are not. She can't help you study for English. 

K: I know but the idea of meeting this guy isn't all too appealing 

A: just text him Keith 

Keith sighs and puts his phone down. When it comes down to it, Keith knows Adam is right. Supposedly Lance is an extremely good writer, and Keith is suffering with working on the creative writing assignments he is being given. Plus Keith isn't the best at keeping up with the reading assignments, and he needs someone that is good at reading in-depth. 

Romelle agrees with Adam, and makes that very clear, "Keith I doubt that he will be a bad person. Adam is right, anyways. I can't help you with everything. You need someone from your major to help you. Just text him, please." Keith sighs and looks at Romelle, "You are a really bad best friend." Nevertheless, he picks his phone back up and types in the number he was given. 

Keith to Lance  
K: is this Lance?

L: Yep! Who's this?

K: Keith. 

L: Are you the guy that Adam was telling me about? 

K: I must be because he also told me about you. So you are an English major? 

L: Yeah! I was told that your problems areas are creative writing and basically any type of reading. 

K: well that isn't true but whatever. I do need help with reading but only in-depth. Can you help with that?

L: Of course man! Just let me know where and when you want to meet up somewhere and I'll be there. We could meet today if you want?

Keith puts his phone to the side and takes a deep breath, "He wants to see me today, possibly. I feel like it's too soon. Give me a good excuse!" Romelle rolls onto her stomach and looks at Keith, "Your pet hamster just died." Keith glares at Romelle and then begins to text again. 

K: Ah I don't know if I could today. I'm helping a friend with her art project. Is this Friday good? 

L: sure! Is the library on campus okay? I don't know if you live on or off. 

K: I'm on campus. The library is chill. Around 3? It's right after my science fiction class and an hour or so before my creative writing 

L: Really?? Dude we might have creative writing together and never noticed. But yeah, that's fine! I'll see you then :) 

Keith decides that the conversation is over and locks his phone. He looks at Romelle, "I can't go today because supposedly I'm helping my friend with her art project. You know, the one you are procrastinating on working on?" Romelle throws a pencil at Keith, "Whatever. I need to figure out who my model will be. I asked Allura but she said that she will be busy this week. Hey! Isn't James coming over today??" 

Keith raises an eyebrow, "Of course he is? He is my roommate..?" As if on cue, James opens the door and smiles at Keith. "Kogane, what's up? You text that Lance dude yet?" Keith nods, "Just did. I'm meeting him on Friday at 3pm so you can invite Ryan over if you want." James laughs and sits down on his bed. Romelle sits on from her place on Keith's bed, "Ooo, Ryan? What's the chisme with that?" 

"Aha, nothing! Don't you have an art project you are supposed to be working on??", James tries to change the topic, which gracefully earns an eraser being launched at his face. "I'm supposed to draw someone who I find interesting. Keith said no, Allura is busy..", Romelle's face lights up, "James! Can I draw you?" James glances at Keith, almost as if he is asking for help. Keith raises his hands, backing off from the conversation.

"Fine.. Make it quick though! I have a piano lesson in an hour." Romelle grins and gets set up. Keith looks at his phone and sees a message from Shiro. 

Shiro to Keith  
S: Hey! Do you want to come over for dinner tonight? Adam says he wants to talk to you about something. Also we miss you!! We haven't seen you in a week :( 

K: Sure. When should I be there? 

S: Whenever you want 

K: I'll leave in a minute. I have nothing better to do than third wheel my brother and his husband 

Keith stands up and puts his phone in his pocket, "Hey guys I'm going to leave. Don't kill each other when I'm gone." There are quiet responses that promise they won't as Keith puts on a jacket and leaves the room. 

The campus of Lupi University (Home of the Wolves, named after the Lupus constellation) is rather cold during the winter season. Snow covers the buildings and trees, and Keith loves it. 

The snow fall is something he never used to see when he was younger. He lived in Arizona with Shiro, which was way too hot for Shiro's liking. Now that he is older, and that they all moved to a city that faces better weather, he realizes that snow is rather dull in the minds of most people. Yet there's something about the whole "every snowflake is different" that makes Keith happy. 

He also loves watching people slip on the ice, but that's not something he would admit to anyone. 

Keith puts in earbuds as he walks to his truck, which is securely hidden from the snow in the parking lot on campus. He scrolls through his music to find a good song and finally settles on Ultralife by Oh Wonder. 

Within a few minutes, Keith is in his car with the heat blasting and his phone connected to the car. He rubs his hands together and shivers slightly as he sends Shiro a text. 

Keith to Shiro  
K: omw

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first chapter of a new series I will be working on! I have not wrote anything like this in awhile, so I am getting back in the swing of writing about Keith and Lance.  
> I hope you enjoyed reading this first chapter!


	2. Lights Out Solo In The Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith hangs out with Shiro and Adam for awhile, but Friday comes faster than he had hoped.

Within 30 minute, Keith is pulled into the driveway of his brother and his brothers husband. He turns the engine off then gets out of the car. Shiro opens the front door and waves at Keith. Keith walks toward Shiro, "Where's Adam? Doesn't he usually follow you around everywhere?"

Shiro smiles, “Usually, yes he does. But he is making dinner so… he couldn’t follow me this time. I cannot believe that I have been married to him for so long, but he still won’t let me make food other than ramen..” Keith rolls his eyes and walks into the house, “Well, he is a chef, so it makes sense..in a way.. Anyways, I texted the guy that you two told me to text.” Shiro closes the door and looks at Keith, “How did that go?” Keith shrugs and sits on a couch in the living room. 

Shiro and Adam’s house is rather small, since it is only them that live there. They decided soon after getting married that they needed to get a new house, mostly because they used to live was an apartment and it was way too uncomfortable living there. They wanted to stay close to Keith but not too close that Keith would be able to live there and drive to school everyday. So they decided on this two bedroom house that they believed was perfect for themselves. 

Keith likes it, but absolutely hates the way that they decorate.

In fact, one of the first things you see when you walk in is a painting that Shiro had done at 3 in the morning when he was drunk. It is a terrible, terrible painting of bunny that says “hop right in”. When Keith received a picture of it the next day, he almost begged for Adam to burn it. Adam refused, and now there it is.. hung on the wall. 

After a few minutes of silence, thanks to Keith not exactly responding to Shiro, Adam walks into the living room. “You do know you will not be getting away with not telling us more information about how it went with Lance.” Adam crosses his arms and looks at Keith. “You heard me??”, Keith asks. Adam scoffs, as if offended by Keith’s question, “Of course I did, now tell us everything as we eat.”

Once everyone is at the kitchen table, Adam sends an expectant glance toward Keith. “Okay, fine, I will tell you more.. We are meeting up on Friday at the library to work on things together. We might have creative writing together and never realized. He seems nice, but I really don’t know if I want to see him so soon. He asked about today but I lied to him about having to help Romelle with her art project. Are you happy now?” Adam and Shiro nod, then allow Keith to eat without any further questions. 

They spend the next few hours talking and playing games. Around ten, Keith decides he should leave (or more so Adam tells him he should leave. Adam doesn’t like when Keith has to drive home when it is extremely late, so he tends to kick Keith out once it hits ten). He says his goodbyes then walks outside to his car. 

The car, not to Keith’s surprise, is freezing cold. At some point during the night a snowstorm began, which only added to Adam’s concern, but the roads should be empty considering the time. Keith turns on the engine and begins to drive. 

\------

Friday comes much faster than Keith thought it would. He almost forgot it was Friday, until James reminded him. 

“So what do you have to do today?”, James asks Keith as he lays on his bed. “I have two classes today.. And I will be home around 5:30. Is that okay with you?” James only hums, which usually means yes, then sits up. 

“Ryan is coming over today as you are with that guy. I offered to help him with a film project about music”, James mentions after about an hour of random conversation and Keith working on a writing assignment. “That guy.. Tha- Oh… Oh shit! James, I am seeing Lance today!” James looks at Keith, “I am aware. Did you forget?!” Keith closes his computer, “Yes, I did.. This is why I need to put more reminders on my phone for me..” James only laughs at Keith. 

Most days are typically like this. On and off conversation as they work on assignments or scroll lazily through their phone. And even though everyday is like that, Keith would rather come home and watch James help Ryan rather than meet with Lance. As Keith walks to his science fiction class, he is almost tempted to text Lance and cancel on him. 

Keith to Lance  
K: Hey I was just thinking that maybe we should pick another day than today to meet. I’m not feeling great today..  
(deleted)  
K: Lance, it is Keith. I rethought the whole studying together thing and maybe we shouldn’t. Hopefully you are okay with that!  
(deleted)

But after several attempted texts, Keith gives up and begins to mentally prepare himself to see Lance.

Keith’s science fiction class goes faster than he hoped it would. After what feels like 20 minutes, Keith is begrudgingly walking towards the campuses library. He was hoping that he would get there before Lance, so that he could mentally prepare, yet that hope disappears as he receives a call from Lance. 

“Hey! I just wanted to let you know that I am at the library! I’m on the second floor. Do you know what I look like?”, Lance's voice is loud and sudden in Keith’s ear and it takes him a moment to recover. “No.. Adam never showed me a picture, so I don’t know. What are you wearing?” Lance laughs, “I didn’t know that it was that kind of call. Well, if you need to know, I am wearing a darker green jacket and a blue shirt. My jeans are.. black today. I thought they were navy blue..” Lance quickly gets distracted and Keith sighs, “I’ll be there in a few minutes. Don’t leave where you are.” With that, he ends the call. 

Keith wonders why Adam decided that Lance would be the person that could help him. Afterall, Adam took several advanced English classes and could, just as easily, help him. He assumes it is because Adam wants Keith to make friends, but how did Adam even know about Lance? Keith groans, which alerts some of the students around him, and walks slightly faster to the library.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Hopefully this chapter is a bit better than the last, but like I mentioned before I am only recently writing like this again after about 5 months so it is an adjustment.  
> Have a wonderful day!


	3. Stole My Mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith finally meets Lance. Things go better than expected.

The library on Lupi’s campus is, not surprisingly, very large. There are four floors, each with a slightly different meaning or genre of book. The top floor, Keith’s personal favorite, is a silent reading and studying area. It’s where students go when they just want to have some peace and quiet. The third floor is a computer lab for students without laptops or that need a charger and forgot theirs in their dorm. There are also printers, but those are difficult to use. The second floor, the one Keith will be meeting Lance at, is the section of the library for study groups and tutors. People are allowed to be louder there because it’s a place for meeting up. The last floor, and the one Keith is now walking through to reach the stairs, is where a large portion of the actual books are. There are, of course, books on the other floors, but the bottom floor has the largest selection and it is also where you check out the books. 

Keith follows behind a group of students as he walks up the stairs. He continues to mentally prepare to meet Lance. Keith thinks back on the phone call, thinking about Lance’s voice. He sounded nice, at least. Yet, the thought of actually having to meet Lance is terrifying to Keith. 

Keith wants to trust that Adam supplied him with someone who was genuinely good at writing and reading. But some part of him, for some reason, doesn’t exactly trust Adam did. So he isn’t shocked when his nerves increase even more when he steps foot on the second floor. 

It doesn’t take long for Keith to find Lance, but it does take an extra five minutes to convince himself to just go to Lance. Once he does, Lance smiles. 

“Hey! It’s so nice to meet you. I’m Lance McClain, and I’m an English major here. I assume you are too, or Adam wouldn’t have set us up for this”, Lance says as Keith sits down across the table from Lance. “Yes, I am. I’m Keith Kogane.” 

Lance nods and then takes out his laptop, turning it on in the process. Keirh does the same and sighs, “So how will this work?” Lance looks at Keith, “Well.. I think we should start by reading some of each other’s work. Do you have any pieces from our creative writing class that you liked? I have one that I can show you.” 

“Let me check..”, Keith mumbles as he starts to scroll through the works that he has done throughout the year so far. As he does that, Lance moves so he is sitting next to Keith. “There was this one.. Remember the one where we had to create a scene without dialogue?” Lance nods. “Well I liked that one..”

“Okay I can show you that one too”, Lance replies as he pulls that assignment up. They switch laptops and start to read. 

(Although the beach was full of other people, Rose still managed to find a place to sit on her own. The waves crashed onto the shore, water splashing against rocks and soaking the sand. All Rose ever wants is peace, and this is where she finds it…. Alone by the ocean. Yet, she wonders how things would be different if she wasn’t gifted with this beautiful beach so close to her…)

As Keith reads, he is impressed with the writing. The first paragraph is about a character named Rose and how she feels about the beach, and the ones after that are about why she loves the beach. It ends with her sitting in the water, alone, when she is much older. 

Lance seems to have reread Keith’s story at least three times by the time he finally looks at Keith. “Why do you need my help??” 

Keith is taken aback and looks at his laptop, “I’m.. not great at writing? I have a lot of problems with my grammar and I write the same way as I think. It gets scrambled and messy really easily.” They switch computers so they have their own. 

“I think that you are way better than you think you are. Why don’t you show me another? Did you like the one where we had to write in second perspective?” Lance pulls up that writing assignment and looks at Keith. Keith shrugs slightly and opens it. They switch laptops again and Keith starts to read. 

(You never thought that this could happen to you. One second you are on a walk, and the next you are being taken away by the police. They won’t let you ask questions, let alone speak. You feel anger fill your body, but there is nothing you can do. You sit in silence, looking at the outside world as things go numb.)

Keith looks at Lance once done, realizing that his own version of this assignment is much darker than Lance’s. Yet, when he looks at Lance he sees a much different reaction that he thought he would. Lance is fully emerged into Keith’s writing, which is almost shocking to see. 

“Keith.. this is amazing..! How could you not love this?? You are so talented!”, Lance compliments. Keith looks at his laptop and shrugs, “I just.. don’t think that I did good on this.. And I’m extra worried now that our Mrs. Rivera said she will be giving us a harder assignment next. I just don’t know if I’m cut out for this major anymore..”

Lance is silent for a moment as he is switching their laptops. He look at Keith, “I just met you, and I don’t want to ruin any chance at a friendship. But you think too low of yourself. You joined this major for a reason, and I’m not thinking it’s because anyone forced you to. You believed that you could do this, so prove yourself right. Mrs. Rivera might be giving us a harder assignment today, but that doesn’t mean you are any less capable of succeeding and finishing the assignment. Don’t let your fear take over.” 

Keith says nothing, unsure how to respond to what Lance is saying. In the silence, Keith opens a new document on his laptop. He names it ‘Idea Sharing’ then looks at Lance. “What is your email address?”, Keith asks. “leandrom@lupi.com.. Why?”

“I’m making a document that we can use. We put ideas in it for writing and then write a quick preview of what it would look like within the assignment. The other person can leave a comment with suggestions, edits, or something like that. It could make some things easier for this stupid class considering it can be hard to come up with ideas.”

“That’s actually really smart..” Lance smiles and looks at the time, “Oh wow.. it’s already time to go to class. Do you want to walk with me?” Keith nods slowly as he turns off his laptop and puts it away. Once they are both ready to leave, they head toward the stairs together. 

Being around Lance is, surprisingly, not too bad. He talks so much that it’s easy for Keith to simply just listen and not respond much, other than quick and simple responses. It, also, allows Keith to learn a lot about Lance very quickly. 

“Oh! And there was this one time where Marco got in trouble for telling me that milk came from spiders. I trusted him, but I don’t know why. Anyway, I was so afraid of spiders that I refused to drink milk for at least a month. When my mamá finally asked why, Marco was grounded for the same length of time that I didn’t drink milk. It was really funny but now I kind of feel bad because he missed out on some stupid gaming tournament that he really wanted to go to. He still doesn’t let me live it down and it’s been years. Sometimes when I visit he goes, ‘Leandro, I could have had an award for first place in that one gaming tournament. All my friends have that award, but I don’t. Do you remember why? Oh yeah, because you thought spiders could be milked.’ I was a really dumb child.”

Keith looks at Lance, “I’m lactose intolerant, but I still eat and drink lactose things. Also, your brother sounds funny. Why does he call you Leandro?” Lance looks at Keith and starts to laugh. Keith crosses his arms, feeling a mixture of confusion and embarrassment, “What??”

“Keith, my real name is Leandro. Leandro McClain. My parents call me by Lance, though, and it just caught on with everyone. The only time I get called Leandro now is if I’m in trouble, or if a teacher doesn’t like me. Did you really not realize that my email address has the name Leandro??”

Keith frowns, “Well.. I just thought they messed up when creating the email within the system. My roommate James has his name wrong on his email. His email says Jameson, not James. I didn’t think much of it..” 

Lance smiles and nudges Keith with his shoulder as they stop outside of the creative writing class. “You are fun to be around. We should make this a weekly thing.. You up for that?” Keith nods, although not sure that he is up for that, and walks into the classroom. 

Everyone sits down as class begins. “Good afternoon class. Today, I will be assigning you your first semester final. You will, of course, have smaller assignments as you work on this larger one, but this one is worth far more points than any other assignment you will be receiving. Now, I’ve had several students that have done spectacular on this assignment, and some that have not. So listen closely. Your assignment is to write a story about someone you love. The catch is, it must be someone who is not family. In addition, you must not use direct names. It is due in a month and a half.”

‘Well, this is going to be a problem’, is the only thing that Keith can think.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is another chapter for you all. Poor Keith doesn’t really love anything other than his family, so this assignment is going to be hard for him. Maybe he can get a dog and write about that!  
> Anyway, thank you for reading and have a wonderful day!


End file.
